Dutchtide has spent the past three and a half years building Midnight Breeze, a generative art project that captures the stillness of the night and the quiet beauty of connection. Now complete, the series stands as the culmination of their artistic journey. It’s an exploration of silence, connection, and the meaning found along the lonely road.

The Midnight Breeze mint continues to unfold over time, inviting collectors to join the journey and become part of its evolving world. Through its fragments, the Tatami Room, and the community that formed around it, Midnight Breeze invites viewers to find meaning in the silence.

In this conversation, Dutchtide reflects on the philosophy behind their work, the evolution of Midnight Breeze, and the community-driven experiences that bring its world to life.

OpenSea: Let’s start with your origin story. What led you to digital art and eventually into NFTs?

Dutchtide: My origins lie in the animation and gaming industry. I used to work as a concept artist. The skills I learned there helped me a lot to stand out during the first NFT wave of 2020. At the time there was a lot of art that simply did not have quality or thought behind it. 

OpenSea: Ma, the space between spaces, seems central to your work and Midnight Breeze feels like a particularly striking expression of it. Can you tell us what it represents to you?

Dutchtide: I’ve explored this concept in many ways, but the best example is within Midnight Breeze itself, where no people are visible, yet we see hints of their lives everywhere. A car has been left behind, but no one is there to drive it. A lone coffee shop stays open late into the night, yet no one is there to enjoy it.

It’s about the serene silence that settles in at this hour, when you’re the last one awake. And yet, you know you’re not the only one. It’s a strange contradiction that invites the viewer to feel, not just consume.

OpenSea: With the Ma philosophy as a key influence in your work, how does that help shape what you create?

Dutchtide: The Ma philosophy helps me create these feelings. I want the viewer’s engagement to uncover infinite layers of interest. This means that with every frame, you can see something different, something new.

Above all, it allows you, the viewer, to step out of your own life for a brief moment and into this world, where it’s silent. And it’s that silence that creates connection. It’s that connection that makes this unlike anything else in your wallet.

That’s why, three and a half years after mint, people still collect and discover new things. And I believe this will continue for at least the next five years.

OpenSea: You’ve spoken before about how the digital medium changes the role of the collector. How does that idea come through in Midnight Breeze?

Dutchtide: In the traditional art world, the story ends when you buy a piece. You hang it on your wall. In the digital art world, the story is only just beginning.

Midnight Breeze is the kind of art you couldn’t own outside this medium. If the first idea was a storyboard, a still image, then the next iteration is a window into that world.

Imagine a story that evolves with you. What does that mean? It means you decide how it continues.

Each variation is a fully animated fragment, 30 seconds long, with music and the sounds of that world. Those who hold my original work can “fragment” (burn) their Midnight Breeze token into the new collection one to one. New collectors can mint a fragment that carries its own significance as new traits are explored and stories unfold.

It’s not just an NFT, or a generative piece of art. It’s a world to explore, a lonely road to walk. It’s you, the last one awake.

OpenSea: Midnight Breeze is ultimately about connection, not speculation or status. How did you translate that idea of connection into the experience itself?

Dutchtide: For the past month, I’ve been working hard to create a different kind of buildup to the launch of Midnight Breeze. I realized that to compete in this industry, and to matter, I have to stand out and go in a direction others cannot go.

My conclusion was connection. Trading happens with coins, and speculation can happen anywhere, but Midnight Breeze is about something deeper. I wanted to build a project that allows people to tell their story. How they walk the lonely road.

OpenSea: You curated a group of 100 people to help shape Midnight Breeze through their own stories. What inspired you to involve the community so directly in your creative process?

Dutchtide: Each person contributed to Midnight Breeze through story, innovation, and commitment. They experienced Distant Summer Rain and were invited to Chapter One, “The Beginning,” where the community took its first step on the lonely road.

They did this by answering a fundamental question, which helped them write a letter to the future. Many felt a deep connection to what Midnight Breeze is afterward. I was honestly quite surprised, but it was amazing to see how deeply people can feel, and in turn, feel the breeze.

The token they minted is soulbound and will return to them in a very long time, around five years.

OpenSea: The Tatami Room sounds like a fascinating concept, a place where “all lonely roads converge.” What happens there, and what does it represent to you?

Dutchtide: The Tatami Room is where all lonely roads converge into a singular point. It allows those who enter to communicate through notes, only a hundred notes will ever exist. Over time, these notes can change hands and new stories can be written.

It’s something I’m extremely passionate about. There are so many ways to engage here. As more notes are minted, the Tatami Room grows in both space and meaning. Notes that endure will gain more and more history, which we show through their timelines. Some will stay unwritten, while others will be burned or exchanged countless times.

The Tatami Room and Distant Summer Rain both take place on the lonely road, offering different perspectives on the art so many people own. Together, they give context and depth to this world.

OpenSea: Each fragment, which means transitioning your NFTs from version V1 to V2 in Midnight Breeze, is a unique story. Can you tell us about how these pieces come together?

Dutchtide: At this moment in time, there’s nothing else like it. Sometimes I scroll through the renders, it took a full 168 hours to render all 10,000 videos, and I’m amazed by some of the combinations.

As mentioned before, each holder can fragment their Breeze, and collectors will have the opportunity to experience new and different combinations in the new collection. A total of 3,031 new mints will be available.

OpenSea: Collecting seems to play a big role in your philosophy. How do you think about the relationship between artist and collector?

Dutchtide: To me, collecting is very important. I’m a collector myself, which means I understand that ownership is integral. I wanted to be very considerate toward those who own my art.

Airdrops, open editions, and similar releases can take away from what truly matters. The story evolves with you.

In a time where noise is constant, memecoins can launch in two minutes, and many people doubt the true validity of an NFT, I’d argue that taking it slow and focusing on quality is what will set you apart.

OpenSea: You’ve called Fragments of the Lonely Road your magnum opus, a project that took three and a half years and a major investment to complete. How has that journey shaped you as an artist?

Dutchtide: The release of Midnight Breeze: Fragments of the Lonely Road is the crescendo of everything I’ve worked toward. It’s been a three-and-a-half-year journey that took around $700,000 to bring to life, an artistic journey few could match.

But that investment wasn’t in vain. This space has allowed artists like me to do things unimaginable before, and I think that’s something truly worth existing. I’m proud of what I’ve accomplished. This project goes deeper than most will ever know.

OpenSea: Looking ahead, how do you see the world of Midnight Breeze evolving? What do you hope collectors and viewers will take away from it five years from now?

Dutchtide: I hope that by allowing those 100 to write their letters and engage in the Tatami Room, they can guide those who are still wandering aimlessly. My hope is that they help others find the stillness and presence required to feel the Midnight Summer Breeze. But in the end, I aim to continuously show what this world is about.  Through my art, new experiences, partnerships and collaborations. Because the story is only just beginning.

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